Les Rencontres Cinematografiques de Cerbère-Portbou, a film festival that this year marks its tenth edition, announced its winners on Sunday 5th October. The Chilean filmmaker Ignacio Agüero, one of the two guest filmmakers at the 2014 Punto de Vista International Seminar, has won two awards for his film El otro día: a special mention and an artist-in-residence position at the Hotel Bellvedere Le Rayon Vert de Cerbère, the venue for Les Rencontres, which the director must complete before the next edition of the festival, in October 2015. Greta Alfaro, a director from Navarre, who took part in the Punto de Vista Festival in 2013 as participant in the Proyecto X Films showcase, received another special mention for her short film In Ictu Oculi. Other awards were presented to Être vivant, by Emmanuel Gras, nominated by the Cinemaginaire festival (who also won an artist-in-residence prize) and Iranien, by Mehran Tamadon, nominated by Cinema du Réel.

Les Rencontres Cinematografiques de Cerbère-Portbou, a film festival that this year marks its tenth edition, announced its winners on Sunday 5th October. The Chilean filmmaker Ignacio Agüero, one of the two guest filmmakers at the 2014 Punto de Vista International Seminar, has won two awards for his film El otro día: a special mention and an artist-in-residence position at the Hotel Bellvedere Le Rayon Vert de Cerbère, the venue for Les Rencontres, which the director must complete before the next edition of the festival, in October 2015. Greta Alfaro, a director from Navarre, who took part in the Punto de Vista Festival in 2013 as participant in the Proyecto X Films showcase, received another special mention for her short film In Ictu Oculi. Other awards were presented to Être vivant, by Emmanuel Gras, nominated by the Cinemaginaire festival (who also won an artist-in-residence prize) and Iranien, by Mehran Tamadon, nominated by Cinema du Réel.

At this festival, prizes are awarded by the filmmakers themselves, with the makers of short films choosing the winner of the prize for the best feature film, and the makers of the feature films deciding who will receive the prize for the best short film. The special mention awards are chosen by the festival organisers, who this year decided to delegate this responsibility to the winner of the artisti-in-residence prize at the previous edtion of the festival.

Les Rencontres Cinematografiques de Cerbère-Portbou, which took place between 2nd and 5th October in the border towns of Cerbère and Portbou, based its programme, as it has done in previous editions, around the “Carte Blanche” showcase sections presented by other documentary film festivals. Every year, Patrick Viret, director of the Cerbère festival, invites the participating festivals to choose one short film and one feature film out of those nominated at its latest edition, and to present them to audiences at Les Rencontres together with the directors of the chosen films. The Punto de Vista Festival has taken part for the first time this year as one of the guest festivals, and presented two films shown at two of the events held this year in Pamplona: Ni Nüzü, by Myriam Aycaguer (shown as part of the “foco punto de vista” season last March), and El otro día, by Ignacio Agüero (presented in February at the 2014 Punto de Vista International Seminar).

The short film by Greta Alfaro was part of the “Carte Blanche” showcase selection reserved by Patrick Viret himself.

Punto de Vista has also established further links with this French festival, thanks to the creation of the “Rencontres cinematographiques de Cerbère” award , through which one of the filmmakers presenting a film at the Official Section of the 2015 Punto de Vista festival can also take up an artist-in-residence position in the French border town. The winner of this prize will be announced at the closing ceremony of the Punto de Vista festival on 15th February 2015.